2020 Land Rover Defender returns to the US, and that's awesome as hell
It's been 21 years since we've had a Defender for sale in the US, and in less than two years, we'll have another.
The Defender -- Land Rover's boxiest, foxiest SUV -- has been forbidden fruit for the US for the last two decades or so. But that's about to change, with what might be the best automotive industry holiday gift of all.
Land Rover announced Thursday that the next-generation Defender will once again be offered for sale in the US and Canada. It marks the end of what will be a 23-year Defender dearth when it goes back on sale in 2020 -- while the Defender 90 was last offered in the US from 1994 to 1997, the larger Defender 110 of that same generation was only on sale in the US in 1993.
It's good to see the Defender in its natural environment.
The automaker didn't offer up any more details, save for a wealth of pictures showing the new Defender undergoing testing. US testing will begin in January, and will eventually see the vehicle tackling temperatures between minus 40 degrees and 120 degrees Fahrenheit, reaching altitudes north of 13,000 feet. Suffice it to say, the new Defender will be every bit as capable as the ones before it. It wouldn't be a Land Rover if that wasn't the case.
The pictures don't give away much, other than confirming that the Defender will retain its squared-off silhouette. Everything else is obscured, but Land Rover promises in a press release that the latest Defender will be new inside and out, and it'll contain all the latest tech found in other Land Rover vehicles.
Land Rover will show off the Defender sans camo some time in 2019, and the vehicle will go on sale in various markets in 2020.
